"Oh, yes," he yawned, "I stopped at home for a week, and then they
began to growl because I couldn't get any work to do."

The mate guffawed and Mitchell grinned. They shouldered the
swags, with the pup on top of Mitchell's, took up their billies and
water-bags, turned their unshaven faces to the wide, hazy distance,
and left the timber behind them.




IN A DRY SEASON


Draw a wire fence and a few ragged gums, and add some scattered sheep
running away from the train. Then you'll have the bush all along the
New South Wales western line from Bathurst on.

The railway towns consist of a public house and a general store, with
a square tank and a school-house on piles in the nearer distance. The
tank stands at the end of the school and is not many times smaller
than the building itself. It is safe to call the pub "The Railway
Hotel," and the store "The Railway Stores," with an "s." A
couple of patient, ungroomed hacks are probably standing outside the
pub, while their masters are inside having a drink--several drinks.
Also it's safe to draw a sundowner sitting listlessly on a bench on
the veranda, reading the _Bulletin_. The Railway Stores seem to
exist only in the shadow of the pub, and it is impossible to conceive
either as being independent of the other. There is sometimes a small,